LONDON: India’s Rohan Bopanna and Aussie Matthew Ebden, second seeds in the Wimbledon men’s doubles draw, go up against the tricky French pairing of Adrian Mannarino and Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in the first round.
The Frenchmen are both singles players -- Mannarino, a lefty, ranked 24, has been around the Tour for a while, while the 6 ft 8’ Perricard is 20, and has a singles ranking of 58.
Bopanna-Ebden, the reigning Australian Open champions, reached the semifinals at SW19 last year and with that kick-off a champagne run that won them trophies and accolades.
The India No.2 in the men’s doubles Yuki Bhambri and Frenchman Albano Olivetti are in the top-half of the draw and take on the Kazakh duo of Alexander Bublik and Alexander Shevchenko.
Sriram Balaji, Bopanna’s partner at the Paris Olympics, is playing with Britain’s Luke Johnson here. The Indo-British duo, placed in the bottom-half of the draw, go up against the inform fourth-seeded Croatian-Salvadorian pair of Mate Pavic and Marcelo Arevalo, who won in Paris last month.
Sumit Nagal, who won the boys doubles title here nine years ago, has also entered the doubles draw this time, partnering Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic. They open against the all-Spainish combine of Pedro Martinez and Jaume Munar.
